Spatiotemporal Measurement of Regional Expansion in Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Metropolitan Area Based on Nighttime Light Data

The research purpose is to accurately reveal the temporal and spatial law of the urban expansion of Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan, one of the seven major urban agglomeration areas in China, and provide decision-making basis for the future urban construction land layout and regional development policy-making. Based on the night lighting data (DMSP/OLS), this paper extracts the boundary of the urban construction land of Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan urban agglomeration from 1993 to 2017, and quantitatively studies the spatial and temporal characteristics of the expansion of the metropolitan area in the past 25 years according to the methods of spatial expansion analysis, center of gravity migration measurement, landscape pattern index, spatial autocorrelation, etc. The results show that: 1) it is scientific and feasible to extract urban agglomeration construction land by the method of auxiliary data comparison for the study of urban expansion;2) the expansion of regional space in Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan metropolitan area shows a trend of “weakening first and strengthening later”. The construction land keeps increasing, and the expansion form gradually changes from extensive type to intensive type;3) the center of gravity of the metropolitan area fluctuated and repeated in part during the past 25 years, but it was always located in the municipal district of Changsha city. The eastern region, mainly Changsha city, was still the core area of urban agglomeration expansion;4) strengthening the territorial space protection and control of ecological green core in the metropolitan area is a key measure for the high-quality development of urban agglomeration.

Using modified Soil Conservation Service curve number method to simulate the role of forest in flood control in the upper reach of the Tingjiang River in China

To improve flood control efficiency and increase urban resilience to flooding,the impacts of forest type change on flood control in the upper reach of the Tingjiang River(URTR) were evaluated by a modified model based on the Soil Conservation Service curve number(SCS-CN) method. Parameters of the model were selected and determined according to the comprehensive analysis of model evaluation indexes. The first simulation of forest reconstruction scenario,namely a coniferous forest covering 59.35km^2 is replaced by a broad-leaved forest showed no significant impact on the flood reduction in the URTR. The second simulation was added with 61.75km^2 bamboo forest replaced by broad-leaved forest,the reduction of flood peak discharge and flood volume could be improved significantly. Specifically,flood peak discharge of 10-year return period event was reduced to 7-year event,and the reduction rate of small flood was 21%-28%. Moreover,the flood volume was reduced by 9%-14% and 18%-35% for moderate floods and small floods,respectively. The resultssuggest that the bamboo forest reconstruction is an effective control solution for small to moderate flood in the URTR,the effect of forest conversion on flood volume is increasingly reduced as the rainfall amount increases to more extreme magnitude. Using a hydrological model with scenarios analysis is an effective simulation approach in investigating the relationship between forest type change and flood control. This method would provide reliable support for flood control and disaster mitigation in mountainous cities.

Development and case study of a science-based software platform to support policy making on air quality

This article describes the development and implementations of a novel software platform that supports real-time, science-based policy making on air quality through a user-friendly interface. The software, RSM-VAT, uses a response surface modeling（RSM） methodology and serves as a visualization and analysis tool（VAT） for three-dimensional air quality data obtained by atmospheric models. The software features a number of powerful and intuitive data visualization functions for illustrating the complex nonlinear relationship between emission reductions and air quality benefits. The case study of contiguous U.S.demonstrates that the enhanced RSM-VAT is capable of reproducing the air quality model results with Normalized Mean Bias 〈 2% and assisting in air quality policy making in near real time.

City-specific vehicle emission control strategies to achieve stringent emission reduction targets in China's Yangtze River Delta region

The Yangtze River Delta（YRD） region is one of the most prosperous and densely populated regions in China and is facing tremendous pressure to mitigate vehicle emissions and improve air quality.Our assessment has revealed that mitigating vehicle emissions of NOx would be more difficult than reducing the emissions of other major vehicular pollutants（e.g.,CO,HC and PM_（2.5）） in the YRD region.Even in Shanghai,where the emission control implemented are more stringent than in Jiangsu and Zhejiang,we observed little to no reduction in NOx emissions from 2000 to 2010.Emission-reduction targets for HC,NOx and PM_（2.5） are determined using a response surface modeling tool for better air quality.We design city-specific emission control strategies for three vehicle-populated cities in the YRD region：Shanghai and Nanjing and Wuxi in Jiangsu.Our results indicate that even if stringent emission control consisting of the Euro 6/VI standards,the limitation of vehicle population and usage,and the scrappage of older vehicles is applied,Nanjing and Wuxi will not be able to meet the NOx emissions target by 2020.Therefore,additional control measures are proposed for Nanjing and Wuxi to further mitigate NOx emissions from heavy-duty diesel vehicles.